Hirsch heats up on legendary night, leads North Stars over St. Charles E.

Zach Hirsch decided to celebrate St. Charles' first Night of Legends with what he does best this side of throwing a baseball - knocking down 3-pointers.

Hirsch drained five 3-pointers, including three straight in a key third-quarter stretch, to lead the North Stars over St. Charles East 53-42 in front of a loud and nearly packed St. Charles North gym.

Longtime St. Charles coaches Ron Johnson, Jim Parker and Chuck Rachow - with a combined 90-plus years of coaching St. Charles teams - were honored between the varsity girls and boys games.

Both coaching staffs wore jackets with RJ, JP and CR initials while both teams sported T-shirts celebrating the Night of Legends. St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin and St. Charles East's Brian Clodi each thanked the coaches for building the St. Charles tradition, and then players from both teams shook their hands.

"I feel very fortunate to be part of that," Hirsch said. "Those three guys are great, great coaches and I'm just glad I got to be there for it."

Hirsch, who is headed to Nebraska next year on a baseball scholarship, scored a game-high 17 points and was the one shining offensive star on a night not many other players on either team shot well.

Take away Hirsch's 3-point shooting and the teams combined to go 6 of 30. St. Charles North shot 41 percent from the field and the Saints 31 percent. Even at the free-throw line the teams struggled; North made 11 of 22 and the Saints 7 of 15.

Hirsch made the difference, usually on plays set up by Jonathan DeMoss and Nick Neari's penetration.

"That's all we talked about it he will knock them down and you have to sprint at him and you have to be close enough that he couldn't get a shot off," St. Charles East coach Brian Clodi said. "You have to give him credit. He just buried every big 3 tonight. He was the player of the game tonight."

St. Charles North (13-5, 5-1) won its sixth straight and 10th in its last 11 games, losing only to 15-2 Jacobs in that stretch. They withstood St. Charles East trimming a 12-point deficit to 2 with 4:22 left, getting a putback basket by Mike Kastel and two buckets from Neari to quickly push the lead back to 47-38.

"We're really starting to click as a team," Neari said. "Everyone is figuring out their roles and playing together. That's all we have to do."

The Saints (3-14, 1-4) stayed close even without 6-foot-7 Kevin Senechalle and his 20-point scoring average on the court much of the night. Senechalle picked up his first foul a minute into the game, and later went to the bench for the final 5:29 of the first half when he drew his third foul.

Even while Senechalle was on the court, the North Stars did a good job, holding him to 6 points and 7 rebounds.

"Watching Elgin play him they did a good job of fronting and helping on the back side," Poulin said. "We haven't faced too many big men that force you to do it. Kevin is dominant, you need two people to stop him. To only be up 8 at half (with Senechalle in foul trouble) was a little worrisome."

Senechalle did play the entire third quarter and first five minutes of the fourth without picking up his fourth foul. The Saints stormed back, with Tim Russell's 3-pointer with 4:22 left cutting the North Stars' lead to 40-38, the closest the game had been since 2-2.

But the foul problems came back to haunt Senechalle one more time, as he picked up his fourth and fifth fouls 8 seconds apart to foul out with 3:06 remaining. The Saints trailed 42-38 at that point, and in short time lost any hope of the comeback win, down 52-40.

"You don't like all the ticky-tack fouls, I wish he would have a good foul," Clodi said. "Tonight he didn't really have any good fouls where he got caught up in the air or something like that. That was disappointing he wasn't out there and couldn't get in the flow. In a game like this with that much on the line that was disappointing, no doubt about it. He knows for us to be successful he has to be on the floor and get more than 6 shots up."

DeMoss and Neari joined Hirsch in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively. They also combined for 7 of the team's 12 assists.

"We played with confidence and were calm and confident in our own gym," Poulin said. "I felt like our whole team was into the game. Everyone was playing for each other. We're starting to come together and see some unity."

Zach Scott led the Saints with 12 points and did much of the ball-handling on a night the Saints cut their turnovers from 20 Friday night to 7.

"Everyone on our team fought hard and did everything they could to try to win the game," Scott said. "Kevin not out there hurt us a lot but everyone gave everything they had."

"We had a chance in the fourth quarter to beat a great team," Clodi said. "Any coach would tell you against a team like that you would want a chance to win, and we had a chance tonight."